Heroin and other opiods are ravaging communities across the country. More Americans die from drug overdoeses than in car crashes, with deaths from heroin increasing 248 percent between 2010 and 2014. This trend is driven by the abuse of prescription painkillers.

Somce 1999, the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. has nearly quadrupled, despite no overall change in the amount of pain reported by Americans. Deaths from these drugs - such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone - have quadrupled since 1999. (Source: Center for Disease Control)

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•What are opioids? Opioids are drugs that reduce the intensity of pain signals. The word "opioid" comes from opium, a drug made from the poppy plant.

•What are they used for? Many teens and young adults first use opioids when they are prescribed them by a dentist or oral surgeon, often for removal of molars. Other teens and young adults may be prescribed opioids for a sports injury.

•Why do some teens and young adults abuse opioids? For a variety of reasons - to party and get high, or to cope with academic, social or emotional stress.

•How do they abuse them? Sometimes people get high by crushing pills into powder to snort, swallow or inject (after dissolving in water). Heroin is an illegal opioid that can be injected,

snorted or smoked.

•Where do they get the drugs? The majority of teens and young adults abusing prescription drugs get them from medicine cabinets of family members and friends. Some hand out or sell their extra pills, or pills they've acquired or stolen from classmates. A small minority of teens and young adults say they get their prescription drugs illicitly from doctors, pharmacists or online